Status of the area

The Flag Bulletin [tfb],
#149 (1992) p. 247 states: "Geycha and Zangesur: It is claimed that in March 1992 Azeri-populated areas near Lake Geycha (Lake Sevan) in Armenia
proclaimed their own state."
I would assume the Armenians would vehemently deny the existence of
these people or this state. It is also possible the Azeris proclaimed
this state from outside Armenia. The phrase "It is claimed..." is
telling.

Dave Martucci, 24 July 1998

An Armenian point of view

I insist that the fact of existence of any flag does not imply the
existence of a state or of necessary conditions for its creation.
Until 1988-1990, the Azeri population of Armenia was about 180,000
(less than 5 percent of total population), and it was extremely
scattered throughout the country. Azeris were living almost in all
provinces with small, compact groups. They are not indigenous people
in Armenia. First Turkic tribes settled in Transcaucasia in the
VIIth-VIIIth centuries, at the time, when Armenia already had a more than
1000 year-old history.
After the well-known events connected with the national-liberation
movement in Nagorno-Karabakh, more than 400,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan were displaced and moved to Armenia. This was followed by the migration of Armenian Azeri population to Azerbaijan. As a result, in 1992, there were no Armenian community in Azerbaijan and
no Azeri community in Armenia. This is the true story in brief.
Why have they chosen the territory near Lake Sevan and of
Zangezur for claiming an independent state? I think, they had in mind
the old Pan-Turk dream of unification of all Turkic-speaking nations
within a mysterious state of "Turan". This ideology proved to be
an anti-Armenian movement, since the continuous chain of inhabitancy
of the Turco-Tatar people was interrupted only in Armenia, which
thus, by its existence, became the only obstacle of the
materialization of the Pan-Turk ideology. If you look at a detailed
map of Transcaucasia, you will see that the southern coast of
Lake Sevan and the Zangezur region constitute the territory, dividing
Azerbaijan mainland from the Azerbaijani autonomous republic of
Nakhichevan and subsequently, from Turkey. I think that the main reason, why they claimed the "Geycha and Zangezur" state, was the dream to remove the last obstacle for territorial continuity of the Turkic chain - the Armenian southern province of Siunik (Zangezur).

G. Ghalatchian, 30 July 1998

An Azerbaidjani point of view

In fact, Geycha and Zangezur are historical Azeri lands which have
been inhabited since before the birth of Jesus Christ by indigenous
people of Caucasian Albania. Caucasian Albanians later became
Christians and then were integrated into Azerbaijani ethnos along
with Midians, Atrapatenians and Turkic tribes. Azerbaijani nation
accepted Islam during later periods. Unfortunately, Azeris,
descendants of those ancient people and natives to Geycha and
Zangesur experienced great prosecutions after Russian invasion in the
region. Russian authorities promoted heavy migration of Armenians
into those areas, as well as into Garabagh, Erivan and other parts of
Caucasus, because they saw Christian Armenians as a more loyal base
than Muslim Azeris.
However, even in the beginning of this century, Azeris still
comprised a majority in Geycha and Zangesur. During Soviet rule,
especially in 1948-1950, many of them were expelled from Geycha
and Zangesur, at that time parts of Armenian Republic within
USSR.
Still, before 1988, Azeris were a majority in a big part of Zangezur,
before Armenian nationalist militants killed thousands of Azerbaijani
civilians and expelled all of them from Armenian Republic. That is a
brief history of Azeris in Geycha and Zangesur.